YERELİZ Yerel için Yerelden Cözümler - Local Solutıons for Local Governments
Description
YERELIZ, Local Monitoring, Research and Implementation Association<br />
dedicated to local solutions to local and global issues.<br />
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Monitor municipal services provided to women, children, elderly, persons with disabilities, LGBTI+, migrants, minorities, animals, all vulnerable persons to identify and reduce inequalities. Ensure municipalities are meeting legal commitments and international agreements. Share municipal good practices from Turkey, the world.<br />
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Identify problems, areas of need; identify good practices, develop innovative solutions to meet these needs. <br />
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Provide training, consultancy, capacity building in participatory decision-making and advocacy for local governments and NGOs. Encourage stakeholder participation to achieve inclusive and sustainable urbanization.
Most local governments in Turkey lack the financial and intellectual capacity to deliver the SDGs. Sharing lessons learned is proving to be a cost effective way to transfer knowledge. Also, success stories create momentum which then motivates others. Public awareness of the UN 2030 Development Agenda and the SDG targets is virtually nonexistent. Mainstream media has only marginally reported on this; and to-date there has been no coverage of good practices. YERELIZ has positioned itself to address these voids.<br />
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YERELIZ was established in Istanbul, in 2017. Its members are rights advocates with long years of experience and expertise in local government, academia, NGOs and social activism. And they are dedicated to delivery of the 2030 Development Agenda. <br />
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One of YERELIZ’s initial initiatives was an indicator-based evaluation of participation and inclusiveness in the 39 administrative districts of Istanbul. The other was the collection and publication of 2 booklets: Turkish good practices and international good practices in SDG implementation. The works were launched during the 2018 conference “Localizing SDG Good Practices.” <br />
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In its trainings, YERELIZ has been emphasizing the need for local governments to form partnerships to better deliver social benefits to its citizens. NGOs, universities and the private sector are all stakeholders who can and should participate in the development of social policies that will lead to inclusive, sustainable cities. <br />
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The extensive experience of the members with local governments and advocacy, and their dedication to 2030 Development Agenda, make YERELIZ especially effective in preparing Turkish cities to deliver the SDGs. Turkey will be holding local elections in March 2019 and within the following 6 months municipalities must develop their 5-year strategic plans. (Local elections are held every 5 years.) YERELIZ will be working with local governments, NGOs and the public, providing training on participatory and inclusive strategic plan development; and the inclusion of targets leading to poverty eradication, environmental protection and well-being for all.
Partnering with local and international organizations: UNHCR, Union of Turkish World Municipalities, Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Kadikoy Municipality Council (civil society) , Civil Society Exchange Program, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Robert Bosch Stiftung.
Training for NGOs working with migrants, with UNHCR.
Partnering with Union of Turkish World Municipalities and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute on trainings and a conference on Human Rights Cities project, with 7 cities in Turkey participating in the project.
Partnered with Civil Society Exchange Program on our story-telling project.
The indicator-based research on participation and inclusiveness in the 39 administrative districts of Istanbul was instrumental in identifying issues that YERELIZ would choose to address in its work.
Good practices in SDG implementation have been collected and published. We are currently fund-raising to create a video library of these good practices in an effort to facilitate their dissemination.
Partnered with UNHCR Turkey in providing advocacy training to NGOs working with migrants. Goals of the training included how to work with municipalities in addressing migrant issues; insuring that migrants receive city services; develop ways to increase visibility of migrant issues; to ensure that these NGOs are included in participatory processes.
In October 2018, YERELIZ held the Conference on Good Practices on the Localization of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Within the context of the Human Rights Cities project, co-sponsored by the Union of Turkish World Municipalities and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, YERELIZ has: held a conference on Human Rights Cities in Istanbul; is leading the work of localizing indicators of human rights cities; provided a 3-day training session to the 7 Human Rights Cities in Turkey
Partnering with the Civil Society Exchange Program, increasing the advocacy capacity of local NGOs, by providing training on
storytelling, an important tool for effective advocacy.
Conducted project writing workshop for the Kadikoy Municipality.
Through our Advocacy School, in partnership with Bahcesehir University, we are working with NGOs to increase their influence and impact.
Following the local elections, our focus will expand to include the development of strategic plans by the local governments. In addition to participatory decision-making, this training will also focus on delivery of the 2030 development agenda. To this end we will work towards widespread awareness of the SDGs among elected officials, bureaucrats and the public, including sharing good practices from others. And to ensure that the strategic plans include action plans addressing climate, equality/inclusion and culture.
This is the area where we will have our greatest impact.
The biggest constraint we face is access to financial resources.
The strategic plans will also provide a baseline from which to gauge progress on delivery of the targets. Strategic plans must be reviewed by law in 2021, providing an opportunity to evaluate progress and make revisions where necessary. The revision period also provides us with the opportunity to extend our work to more municipalities.
As stated above, awareness of the UN 2030 Development Agenda and the SDG targets is very low in Turkey, including among local governments. We at YERELIZ believe that delivery of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is predicated upon our success in localizing the SDGs and their inclusion in the strategic plans and budgets of urban and rural governments. <br />
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Our team’s experience working in local government and NGOs has proven to be an asset in tailoring our training programs to meet the needs of these groups; and an important factor leading to the effectiveness of these programs. <br />
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As stated above, the inclusion of the SDG targets in the strategic plans will be the first measure of our impact. This will be followed in 2 years, when the strategic plans are evaluated and their impact reported. We will identify areas where there are shortcomings, and areas of success. These findings will be added to our good practices and shared within Turkey and, we hope, through this platform.
SDGS & Targets
Deliverables & Timeline
Resources mobilized
Partnership Progress
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 17.14 | Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development |
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- Europe
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Contact Information
Sibel Bulay, Communications contact